The trial of a woman charged with first-degree murder in the death of a Canadian legal scholar in Florida has been postponed as her defence lawyers review new information in the case.

Katherine Magbanua is one of three people accused in the 2014 shooting of Dan Markel, which investigators have alleged was a contract killing rooted in a bitter divorce.

Magbanua's trial had been set to begin at the end of February, but Florida Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman said the woman's lawyers requested more time to look at the evidence and take depositions.

Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia were also arrested and charged in connection with Markel's death.

Rivera pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in October. He alleged in a statement to investigators that he and Garcia were paid to kill Markel because the academic's ex-wife allegedly wanted full custody of their two children.

Police have said Magbanua was in a relationship with Markel's ex-brother-in-law and was the only link between Markel's ex-wife's family and the two men arrested in the professor's death.

Markel's ex-wife and her family have denied any involvement in the death and she has not been charged. Her brother has come under police suspicion but is also not charged.

Police have alleged the hit on Markel was arranged by Magbanua, who had also been romantically involved with Garcia — with whom she has two children.

In a videotaped statement to police, posted online by local media, Rivera told investigators Garcia allegedly asked him to help in the plot. He also alleged Magbanua divided up payment for the hit.

Markel was gunned down in his Tallahassee, Fla., garage in July 2014.

Court documents have indicated he and his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, fought over her push to move their two small children to South Florida to be closer to her family.

At the time of Markel's death, the two were battling over money, with Adelson contending that Markel did not pay her as much as he was supposed to under their divorce agreement. Markel also complained that his mother-in-law was disparaging him and wanted the court to prohibit her from having unsupervised visits with his children, court documents have shown.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2017